"It was all hype" is a right wing meme.

[yardwork]

The same for-profit stations that "hyped" Hurricane Irene are now hosting right-wingers who are breathlessly opining that the warnings before Hurricane Irene were "all hype" and we should hand over the responsibility of weather preparedness to....wait for it....the same for-profit interests that hyped it in the first place.

It's pretty simple, folks. Private corporations would love to get their hands on the tax dollars that go to fund NOAA and the National Weather Service.

Here in North Carolina, I was not exposed to any "hyping" of the storm. Why? Because I stayed away from Fox News and the other commercial for-profit TV and radio stations I expect to lie. They lie about everything else. Why in the world would I expect them to be truthful or helpful about a storm?

Those of us who followed Hurricane Irene by regularly consulting the National Weather Service's resources were prepared. Their forecasts were remarkably accurate. No, they did not call this "the storm of the century." I didn't read anybody call this "North Carolina's Katrina." NOAA never tried to frighten me or holler that "life as I know it will be changed forever." If you were exposed to nonsense like that, next time change the channel.

But please, don't help Piers Morgan enrich Rupert Murdoch.

[OHdem10]

1. Eactly, It was started vey early by GOP. they cannot afford to

let Obama appear to have any "Leadership" ability.

[yardwork]

3. That too.

[Broderick]

2. The Weather Channel used to be a good channel

It's merely more a ratings driven channel anymore. Both the NOAA/NHC and the NWS as you say did a good job of giving the facts.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Yes, I miss the old TWC. :^(

[yardwork]

9. The Weather Channel was purchased by NBC, Bain Capital, and the Blackstone Group in 2008.

Bain Capital has close ties to Mitt Romney. The Blackstone Group was co-founded by Pete Peterson, who has been trying to privatize social security since the 1970s.

[Broderick]

22. And thus we have corporations co opting our national interests

and our weather reporting by issuing panic and hysteria for ratings and PROFIT.

[rosato29]

4. Well... it wasn't exactly Katrina....

n/t

[yardwork]

Did you read my post?

[yardwork]

5. Did you read my post?

[gratuitous]

43. It wasn't, indeed

And that's because we had competent people at the helm, instead of former horse show judges like "Heckuva Job" Brownie. It's truly astonishing how well-prepared people can be for a disaster when the ground work is done ahead of time, and the right people are in place to respond when things happen. When you spend the first 24-48 hours after disaster has struck receiving ceremonial guitars and cutting birthday cakes, a lot more people die.

That's what you meant by Irene not being "exactly Katrina," right?

[rosato29]

51. No....actually I meant category 1 versus category 3.

But heck, you're on a roll, so keep going...

[gratuitous]

52. I'm on a roll?

Uh, okay. It was a bit hard to tell what you were talking about from your original "no text" post. Thanks for taking the time to expand on your remarks.

But even with the difference in hurricane strength, Katrina hit a far less populous area of the country than Irene did. And for a while, Irene was a Category 3 hurricane. The potential for damage and death from Irene was pretty high, and the point in my first post was that Irene was far less impactful in part because people who knew what they were doing were in place to respond. A very large part of Katrina's damage was due to the failure by the authorities to make adequate preparations, part and parcel of a governing philosophy that seeks the least obligation and responsibility from those in authority.

Do you agree? Disagree? Or are you confining your remarks to the bare minimum of information and maximum or unwarranted snark?

[Broderick]

6. We need LESS

profit driven hucksters selling Armageddon to people for ratings.

[yardwork]

Exactly.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Absolutely! Serious and sensible reporting is what we need.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FLPanhandle]

7. I don't think anyone is saying NOAA or the scientists over hyped Irene

My complaint is the exact opposite. The corporate entities didn't accurately report what I was seeing on the government websites. NOAA and their data forecast far less impact than the corporate media did and they did it without the drama or scare tactics. I say they did a great job.

As for the media hype, you say ignore them. I say call them on it because it proves we can't turn over weather forecasting to corporate entities.

[yardwork]

12. I am confused by your posts because you keep linking for-profit "weather experts"

There is a blurring going on here on DU and elsewhere that worries me.

[FLPanhandle]

17. I've consistently blamed the media

Never the government. You are confused.

My complaint is the media was out of sync with the scientists and government websites. I said so when I noticed it got really out of hand early as Friday.

[yardwork]

19. You kept linking to for-profit sites.

[FLPanhandle]

24. Again, you are confused.

The few links were complaints about the media. Don't put words in my mouth.

[Broderick]

26. Are you saying NWS and the NHC

are profit sites and entities?

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

http://www.weather.gov/


The GOP wants to cut funding to these organizations and then we have to rely on entities like TWC for our weather???



http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/weigel/2011/03/11/gop_s_continuing_resolution_cuts_funding_for_national_weather_service_fema.html

[FLPanhandle]

29. That's my biggest fear.

The one source of information with "over hype" will be gone.

[yardwork]

30. You are deliberately accusing me of saying the opposite of what I'm saying.

And why are you answering for FLPanhandle? Are you the same poster?

[Broderick]

37. Not the same poster

I missed his links you referred to. I think you and I have the same feeling that corporations are driving hysteria for profit, as does the other poster but we are all saying it in slightly different ways.

[FLPanhandle]

39. I think we are all on the same page about corporations

Yardwork: You're OP was confusing because you implied complaining about the "hype" was a right wing meme.

You'd be better of saying that complaining about the government "hype" is a right wing meme.
Complaining about the corporate media is fair game.

Peace.

[yardwork]

40. If you read my OP and not just the subject line you might get a clue about what I'm saying.

[FLPanhandle]

44. Again. We are aligned.

There are a few here that are heavily defending the corporate media though. Those folks are the ones lending credibility to the right wing desire to leave weather forecasting to the corporations.

Myself, I'm going to continue to call out the corporations for their storm scare tactics.

[yardwork]

45. I haven't seen anybody "heavily defend the corporate media." I have seen mockery of the warnings.

[FLPanhandle]

47. It's against the rules to point out the corporate defenders by name

Just read a few of these threads and you'll see who the defenders are.

[yardwork]

48. What I have seen is you and one other poster consistently mock the warnings about this storm.

You accompany this mocking with links to infamous conspiracy mongers and for-profit weather stations. If you are trying to support NOAA with your efforts, I am here to tell you that your efforts are backfiring. It sounds to me and many others like you are supporting George Will and Piers Morgan, not the Obama administration. Along the way you are belittling people who have lost everything in this storm.

Now if this is not what you intend, you might want to rethink your strategy. This post is intended in a helpful way.

[FLPanhandle]

50. You read too much into my posts.

Like I said, we seem to be aligned. Peace.

[Broderick]

15. Exactly my thoughts

All the profit driven crisis mongering created panic and lined the pockets of the media hucksters. You are right, it is a case of our national interests getting tangled up in corporations looking to profit from hysteria. The government did well in this event.

[AngryAmish]

13. Saying "X is a right wing meme" is a right wing meme.

[Bragi]

31. Yes it is, and what are we supposed to do?

When someone declares something a "right wing meme" (RWM) the suggestion seems to be that we shouldn't just disagree with the proposition, but that we should and also decline to talk about the underlying issue, since doing so presumably promotes the RWM.

I'm not into that, which is why I like the idea that we dismiss declarations that something is a right-wing meme as being a right-wing meme.

[Waiting For Everyman]

14. K&R

[xmas74]

16. I don't understand how any kind of destructive storm could b

be "overhyped". If there had been less coverage people may have been less than careful, resulting in many more deaths. People say the same about television stations interrupting normal programming in my area for severe weather coverage. If it knocks sense into people and saves lives, go for it.

And yes, it was called the "storm of the century"-for New York City. For North Carolina, it was just hurricane season. People know what needs done while those further up the coast weren't as aware. Vermont is getting it's butt kicked in flooding so the storm really did dump its nastiness, which is good enough reason for the extensive warnings.

Hype, hype, hype all you want when it comes to public safety. It got the word out and death counts are much lower than anyone expected.

[yawnmaster]

32. Overhype can lead to many more deaths. People stop taking warnings seriously....

They stop trusting "informed" sources.
Give me the actual facts with no drama.

[xmas74]

46. But not enough and the information doesn't get to the proper

sources.

Where's the magical, perfect mix? I don't know. IMO, I'd rather see overhype. I know at least during our tornado season people complain about the hype and broadcast interruptions, yet every year there are stories about how some small communities didn't get the correct information. Every year some town has a siren that doesn't sound or sounds within a minute or two of the actual touchdown. The interruption of broadcast in our area (which many refer to as "overhyping, end of the world talk") might just be what saves some residents. It warns them, repeatedly, that something is about to happen.

Hurricanes have more notice yet how many don't listen? Tell them what they need to know, even if it has to be wrapped in continuous coverage and dramatic music. Eventually, it might sink in and they might just protect themselves.

[Overseas]

18. K&R. Thanks for the perspective.

I didn't realize the privateers were actually trying to get their hands on NOAA and the National Weather Service.

[yardwork]

23. There was an all-out push to do so in 2005 right before Katrina.

[sufrommich]

20. Not everything is left versus right. Everything has been over

hyped since news went 24 hours and had to fill dead air with something.

[yardwork]

25. Incorrect. The government did NOT overhype this storm. For-profit corporations did.

There is a difference. It's actually central to what is happening in this country. It is absolutely left vs. right.

[sufrommich]

35. I haven't heard anyone blame the government. Most people

know that news stations love storms and cute girl missing stories. It's such a given now that it's a meme.

[tkmorris]

54. That is PRECISELY what a few posters have been saying

The government entities have been doing a fantastic job compiling and disseminating information while the corporate media sources have hyped these events beyond belief, and further that this "over-hyping" can have a real and negative affect in the long run.

I really don't understand why people here who are actually in agreement in their views on Irene, the media's handling of it, and other such events are nonetheless so very quick to align themselves on one side of the other of an imagined schism. It seems to be the same on every internet discussion forum. 1) Pick an issue there might be some disagreement over, no matter how minor. 2) Pick a clear cut side of that issue, the further to one end of the spectrum the better, and 3) Fight to the (verbal) death over it. It saddens me, it truly does. We have forgotten how to have civil discussions with one another.

There is a poster upthread who I will not name, for obvious reasons, but he/she falls right into the center of the group being called out in these discussions. Guess what? HE DOESN'T DISAGREE WITH YOU. Now I realize that might make for a marginally less interesting thread but the fact is that he (I think it's a he) sees things very much like I do, and you too. He's not your enemy, as I am not, nor most others here. Let's stop sniping over trifles while there are real enemies out there picking over our tired carcasses.

[SavWriter]

21. K and R

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. I fear they either tested it here, or they picked it up from here

Yes tinfoil is tingling.

[yardwork]

33. There is deliberate obfuscation going on - it's interesting to watch in real time.

[Broderick]

34. You are selling the Profit driven hysteria machine pretty hard

The NOAA/NHC and the NWS didn't create the hysteria and panic.

The profit driven hucksters did while Government did their job.

But I suspect many here are believers that Corporations have our best interests at heart.

[yardwork]

38. You seem to be very invested in accusing people of the opposite of what they are doing.

Why is that? And why are you and FLPanhandle always tag teaming and answering for one another?

[Broderick]

42. I am sticking up for the government

which didn't create panic and hysteria. Some are going around saying the hype and hysteria was necessary when this storm was not the epic storm of the century which would change the landscape of cities and states as it was being sold on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, TWC, ect. One REPUBLICAN governor is having to backtrack on his tens of billions charge wherein he perpetuated the mass hysteria for his own personal benefit to distract from what he is doing! The media created so much overreaction that I fear it caused more stress induced deaths than it saved. WE have let corporations co opt our national interests for ratings. I have no problem saying that. This particular post to someone upstream was because they are peddling that the MASS MEDIA hysteria was necessary and I say it was not. But some believe corporations have our best interest at heart.

Like the crisis to bail out the banksters and wall-street! Peddling doom and gloom.

Like the crisis to raise taxes on the wealthy and how it would hurt our economy.

Then people bash Obama for not getting things done.

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. The closest I heard on MSNBC to hysteria

was a fire chief warning about body bags if people did not leave.

<------- guilty of same hype... since I issued a similar warning. I wish it was hype in my case... we recovered 20 bodies.

Methinks we watched a different media.

By the way, you may want to turn in to MSNBC to listen to the governor of VT speak in all kinds of hype of the non flood event in places like Wilmington :sarcasm:

I have a suggestion for you... next disaster turn your national nooz off,,, and turn your LOCAL nooz off. Yep, get rid of the emergency radio. I mean all that comes in is hype, so you really do not need it. And I would suggest the same to your partner.

Hey they do not need the ratings, now do they? So do your duty and turn them all OFF!

[xmas74]

49. Thank you.

I don't see storm coverage and warnings as being "overhyped". When there is the potential of many lives lost my personal feelings are that of broadcast the message in every manner available.

Seems to me that some did a good job of convincing people that it was in their best interest to do what they had to do in order to protect themselves and families. (Each case was different-evacuation, boarding and stocking up, etc.) I don't have to watch the national reports and I don't have to like the national media but if each outlet got the message out then I'm thankful they did so.

[Broderick]

53. It's not hard for me to turn off the hysterical profit centers

But, I personally dealt with the mass hysteria in my business and from other's dealing with it. Gas shortages, lines at grocery stores, people hocking their only valuables. Lines blocking access ways. The made for profit take over of our important national interests ought be troubling to everyone. There was a time when we would get government warnings, public information spots and alerts from the government for these types of events. It was free to the government to issues these. Now everything is driven for profit. They at the media profit centers are parsing through the thesaurus for the next adverbs and nouns to explain the next storm or event because they are wearing out the ones to deal with this one. People need information, not hyperbole, to best protect themselves. They don't need hysterical panic driven breathless reporters complaining about 47 mph winds. Where is your energy on all the deaths in the Texas droughts I ask, or the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that ravaged Virginia causing countless more deaths this year?

Oh, Dominion power says 75% of all customers will be back on line by Wednesday and 99 percent by Friday. Mostly, they just have to come around and flip a switch.

[nadinbrzezinski]

55. Here is a hint about how this hysteria helps

75% of power will be back by Wednesday... IT IS MONDAY... you realize Insulin needs refrigeration? Yep it would be going BAD if it does not have it.

So if you lost power for six hours AND had it in a cold pack... sure like flying.... if you lost power for three days and you have NO ICE... the insulin is no longer good.

Yup, that is hype.

[SlimJimmy]

58. Times have changed. Many types of insulin can be stored at room temperature.

Store your unopened prefilled Levemir® FlexPen® in the refrigerator. Once in use, keep Levemir® FlexPen® at room temperature (less than 86°F) for up to 42 days. When you’re done with a pen, simply throw it out and start a new prefilled insulin pen.

http://www.levemir-us.com/about-levemir-using-FlexPen.asp

[nadinbrzezinski]

59. And many of them can't

So what happens if you got the type that needs it? Are you that daft?

[Broderick]

28. GOP's Continuing Resolution Cuts Funding for National Weather Service, FEMA

http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/weigel/2011/03/11/gop_s_continuing_resolution_cuts_funding_for_national_weather_service_fema.html

[Pooka Fey]

36. K&R

[struggle4progress]

56. "Heads I win, tails you lose." Over-estimate storm strength & be called an alarmist, under-estimate

& be called incompetent

The weather equations are exponentially unstable: if we had scads and scads of sea and atmospheric information, and gigantic computing facilities, the reliability of the forecasts would still deteriorate rapidly with time

But NOAA-NWS nevertheless called the wind and rain just about right for where I live

[Hissyspit]

57. That's sort of what Bradblog was pointing out here last night:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=1834785

Howard Kurtz said it was overhyped, so...

[LanternWaste]

60. I didn't see hype. I saw warnings, caution and concern.

I didn't see hype. I saw warnings, caution and concern. But I didn't see hype.

But then again, I don't have cable and usually watch the Big Three and PBS for broadcast news... as far as I know, maybe the cable channels "hyped" it (but without any clear, measurable/testable and objective standard for what is or is not hype, I'm going to presume it's little more than "I say it's hype, so it's hype...")